This invention relates in general to vehicle park assist systems and in particular to an improved park assist system and method for parking of such a vehicle.
Vehicle park assist systems are used to identify a feasible parking space, e.g., a parallel parking space or a garage parking space, and then take over the steering of the vehicle to maneuver the vehicle into the identified space hands free. During operation, the driver still shifts the transmission and operates the gas and brake pedals. Thus, while the steering is done automatically, the driver is still responsible for safe parking of the vehicle.
One known vehicle park assist system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,526,368 to Endo et al. and includes an electronic control unit (ECU) for parking assistance, a back camera connected to the ECU, a touch display connected to the ECU, and an electric power assisted steering (EPS) apparatus connected to the ECU. In operation, the back camera takes an image of an area extending on a rear side of the vehicle and supplies the image information around the rear of the vehicle to the parking assistance ECU. The parking assistance ECU displays a real picture taken by the back camera to the touch display when a shift position of the vehicle is at a reverse position. The touch display is provided with a touch operation part of a pressure sensitive type or a temperature sensitive type which enables operation by the vehicle driver to set a target parking position on the display by displacing the picture of the vehicle taken by the back camera into a parking space frame on the touch display. In the Endo et al. system, after the target parking position is set by the driver via manual manipulation of the vehicle into a parking space frame on the touch display, the parking assistance ECU performs an automatic steering of the EPS along a calculated path to the target parking position.
Known park assist systems for vehicles are configured to assume that the vehicle is parking against a wall at all times. This is done in order to allow sufficient room for the associated vehicle door to be opened to allow either a passenger(s) from within enough room to open the associated door(s) to exit the vehicle and/or a passenger(s) from outside the vehicle enough room to open the associated door(s) to enter into the vehicle. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a park assist system and method for parking a vehicle which could recognize and distinguish between parking adjacent a wall or other high height object, a curb or other low height object, or any other associated objects in order to optimize the desired end parking position of the vehicle while still allowing sufficient space for the door to be opened for passenger exit and entry.